


A Day in the Life of Lalli

by eozEngineer



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21793834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eozEngineer/pseuds/eozEngineer
Summary: A day in the life of Lalli early Adventure One.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a drabble I'm working on, may or may not continue it, we'll see. :) Constructive criticism welcome!

When Lalli starts his day, it is technically still night. He rouses himself from under Emil’s bunk, slips on his mage’s coat as quietly as a cat, and makes his way out of the tank. He starts his pre-dawn scouting at a loping run, keeping his eyes, ears, and witchy mage-senses peeled for any sign of spirits or trolls. They are always there, waiting in the burned-out husks of civilization, but he avoids them with all the skills learned from a decade of practice.

He maps out the terrain in his head as he goes -- _can’t take them this way, that bridge would never hold the tank, this road looks promising, but better get Sigrun to clear out that building first, looks like there’s a nest in there_ \-- and begins to piece together the optimal path. After a few hours of this, when the sun is just beginning to creep up over the horizon, he heads back to the tank, prepared to deliver his findings to Tuuri.

When he reaches the tank, Mikkel is waiting, hose ready for decontamination. Lalli slouches over and reluctantly strips out of his uniform, grudgingly submitting himself to the pressurized, freezing spray. Once he is thoroughly drenched and shivering, Mikkel allows him to dry off and sneak back into the tank, where he spitefully steals some of Emil’s clothes, even though they hang off of his lanky frame. 

Lalli makes his way to the back of the tank, where Sigrun is just starting her morning routine. She ruffles his hair as he passes her, saying something jovial in her nonsense language. He doesn’t bother acknowledging her. It’s not like she would understand anything he said anyways. 

Tuuri is still fast asleep in her bunk, as is Emil, and Reynir is sprawled out on the floor. Lalli briefly considers ‘accidentally’ kicking Reynir’s stupid braided head, but quickly dismisses the idea, as then he would have to deal with Reynir. Instead, he gingerly steps around him, and goes to wake Tuuri. He bats at her nose until she wrinkles it and opens her eyes.

“Is it really time already?” she grumbles. He stares at her until she finally sighs and rolls out of bed. “Just let me get dressed, then I’ll meet you at the maps,” she says. Lalli nods his assent, then turns away without another word. He makes his way back to the front of the tank, again being careful not to kick Reynir’s outrageous hair. He steals a cookie from Mikkel’s unattended stash as he passes.

When Tuuri finally pulls herself together and joins him at the maps, they get to work plotting the course for the day. Lalli makes sure to point out any road blocks, potential nests, and buildings that may or may not contain valuable books. He and Tuuri go back and forth for a bit about whether or not to take a far riskier path that would lead them near a building that is marked as a book shop on their map, before finally deciding to leave it up to Sigrun’s approval. By the time they finish, the sun has risen completely, and even Reynir is awake.

Lalli attempts to slink back to the bunks for a quick nap, but Emil nabs him before he can get away. He says something that sounds soft and concerned, then pauses and stares at Lalli, before tugging on the hem of his sleeve. He says something else, this time sounding a little amused, and maybe a little embarrassed. Lalli is unrepentant. 

“Your coat smelled good,” he explains, despite knowing that Emil won’t understand a word he says. Either way, Emil smiles as if he knows what Lalli means, then drags him outside where Mikkel has prepared a hearty breakfast of wax soup. Emil forces a bowl into Lalli’s hands, even after he pointedly turns his nose up at it. Mikkel gives him a pointed look that finally has him downing a few bland spoonfuls. Emil smiles at him approvingly, which makes this worth it. 

Once everyone has swallowed as much of the dubious breakfast as they can stomach, they pack up the camp and load back onto the tank. Sigrun will take first shift as tank-guard, clearing away any trolls they might come across. Lalli is finally able to crawl back into the tank and curl up under Emil’s bunk for a nap before it is his turn to guard. 

He is woken up by Sigrun, returning from her shift. She grabs him by his bony ankles and hauls him out from under the bunk. She says something far too loud and encouraging, before lifting him to his feet and giving him a hearty slap on the back that nearly knocks him right back off them. He ducks away from her, grumbling about crazy viking ladies, and goes to take his shift at the front of the tank.

Tuuri calls to him on his way out, “Sigrun said we should take a chance on the road by the book store.”

“Of course she did,” Lalli calls back, resigned, “it’s not like she cares if we all get killed by trolls.” Tuuri snickers in response, but pointedly doesn’t disagree.

Lalli trades Emil’s over-size cleanser’s coat for his own mage uniform. He’ll need his mobility seeing as they’re going to be travelling through a particularly infested area. He pauses before exiting the tank, considering the merits of having pyromaniac backup. After all, Emil is the least annoying of the weirdos on this stupid mission, and he is getting pretty good with a flamethrower. 

“EMIL,” he yowls back into the tank. He appears only a few seconds later, blond hair mussed and looking highly concerned. Before he can get out a word, Lalli tosses his coat over and pulls him to the weapons locker by the hand. Emil catches on quickly, grabs his flamethrower, then follows Lalli out of the tank.

“Have fun on your date,” Tuuri says brightly. Lalli sticks his tongue out at her, then snatches Emil’s hand again to pull him along. Emil makes a noise of mild confusion, but lets himself be manhandled. This is why he is Lalli’s favorite.

Their shift starts off well. The sun is bright overhead, deterring most trolls in the area from leaving the safety of their nests. There are a couple trolls that look vaguely like hermit crabs, using trash-cans as protection from the sun, that follow the tank for a ways. Emil scares them off with a few well-placed blasts from his flamethrower. Lalli approves of this cautious approach. Even if the trash-trolls look harmless, it’s always better safe than sorry.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, I decided to keep writing this. Enjoy some troll-slaying!

After a few more hours, when the sun has just about reached its peak, Sigrun joins them outside again. She and Emil exchange a few nonsense words, then settle in to continue scouting. Lalli has noticed that Emil always stands straighter when he knows Sigrun is watching, closer to the military posture that the Swedes failed to beat into him in cleansing training. Privately, Lalli thinks that it is kind of cute how hard Emil tries. 

Lalli has jogged several meters ahead when he sees it, peeking out from the alley between two crumbling buildings. It is a fairly large troll, not quite big enough to be classified as a giant, but definitely big enough to make Lalli nervous. It turns its disfigured head to glare at him with an unsettling number of eyes, twisted limbs reaching towards him, but it doesn’t venture out from the shaded alley. There is something angry in this troll’s posture.

Lalli immediately stops to call a warning to Emil and Sigrun. “Troll,” he yells. It is the one word he knows will be understood. With a few gestures back at the tank, Sigrun halts them, then comes level with Lalli to peer into the alley at the troll, which is still glaring malevolently. She whistles lowly, probably impressed by the aura of anger the troll is putting off. She says something to Emil, and he pulls two grenades off his belt. 

Before Lalli can express what a bad idea he thinks this is, Emil has primed both charges and lobbed them at the troll. His aim is dead-on for once, one charge smacking the thing in its creepy face, the other landing right at its feet. They blow, and for a minute all Lalli can see is dust and smoke. 

Sigrun smacks Emil in the shoulder, seemingly pleased with the explosion, but Lalli stays tense and alert. The prickling at the base of his neck tells him that the troll has not been permanently dealt with.

Sure enough, just as the dust is beginning to settle, there is an unearthly screech, and the troll comes lunging out of the alley. Half its head has been blown off, and the limbs on its left side hang broken and useless. Still, it moves quickly towards them, lurching forward unevenly and still screaming. 

Emil cries out, sounding predictably panicked, and Lalli shoves him back, pulling out his knife at the same time. Sigrun pulls her rifle into position and takes a few shots, but the troll is moving too quickly and erratically for her to hit. In the split second before it gets to them, Lalli says a prayer for strength and raises his knife.

The troll reaches them with a stink of rotting flesh, mouth gaping, and Lalli meets it with a desperate lunge. His knife plunges deep into one of its remaining eyes and its cries rapidly climb in pitch until they are painful to listen to. Lalli pulls the knife back and stabs it again, aiming to take out the troll’s only remaining eye, but at the last second it sweeps him off his feet with a grotesque, spidery limb.

Lalli falls back into Emil, almost taking them both to the ground. Sigrun grabs them both by the backs of their jackets and hauls them out of range of the troll’s flailing. Emil manages to get his flamethrower up and ready, and finally lights the troll on fire. It rears back, mostly blind, enraged and now scorched, still screaming all the while. Sigrun shoots what is left of its head, then its chest, until the screaming trails off and it collapses at their feet in a smoking heap.

They stare at it for a few moments, catching their breath and waiting to see if the commotion would draw in more aggressors. After a minute, when everything remains calm, Lalli breathes a sigh of relief and begins to assess injuries. His leg is bruised where the troll whacked it out from under him, and he has a shallow scratch up his right forearm, but aside from that he is remarkably intact. 

He turns to check over Emil next, and finds him looking unkempt but whole. Lalli brushes Emil’s hair back into order, earning himself a shaky smile. Sigrun snorts and gives them both a wide, slightly crazed grin. She is clearly still riding high on the adrenaline.

Having determined that they are all relatively uninjured, they drag the troll carcass out of the tank’s path, and continue on their way. Privately, Lalli thinks this bookshop had better be spectacular to justify this mess, when he had a nice safe alternative all planned out.

After another couple hours, they make it to the place on the map where the bookshop is marked. Sure enough, there is a moderately-sized shop with rotting books displayed in the grimy, cracked window. It is impossible to tell from the street how well-preserved the shop is inside, but it does look promising.

They stop the tank and Mikkel joins them in front of the store. Lalli falls back as Mikkel, Sigrun, and Emil start to talk, probably discussing how they plan to raid the store. Lalli creeps back into the tank. He strips out of his contaminated clothes then disinfects and bandages the cut on his arm. He dresses again in clean clothes and makes his way to the driver’s seat.

“Good job out there,” Tuuri greets him cheerfully. Lalli huffs in acknowledgement. “Aren’t you going to help them clear out the store?” she asks. Lalli rolls his eyes.

“The three of them can handle it, and I’m tired,” he says, then drapes himself over Tuuri’s back like an unhappy blanket. She makes a wordless commiserating sound, even though she didn’t have to be awake at an ungodly hour to scout out a path they didn’t even end up using. 

“Go sleep, they’ll wake you up when it’s time to move on,” she says. Lalli takes this invitation almost immediately, and goes to find a corner of the tank to curl up in.


	3. Chapter 3

Emil gently nudges Lalli awake. He looks vaguely sheepish, and Lalli is immediately prepared to feel righteously bothered by something. Still, he only grumbles a little, and lets Emil guide him to the main area of the tank, where the rest of the team are gathered. 

Lalli glances out the window to try and gauge how much time had passed while he slept, and is unpleasantly surprised to see that it couldn’t have even been a full hour, judging by the position of the sun outside. Lalli turns back to stare at the team accusingly. Tuuri gives him a half-smile, looking appropriately abashed, while the rest of the team’s expressions range from unrepentant -- Sigrun -- to clueless -- Reynir. 

Tuuri looks around for support, then sighs when she finds none. “There were tons of books in the store,” she starts defensively, “Absolutely lots! It’s just… the back wall of the store had collapsed so they were all rotten and ruined.” Everyone watches Lalli, waiting for his reaction.

“Of course,” he says, resigned. “Can I go back to sleep now?” Tuuri relays the question to Sigrun, who laughs in her loud, annoying way. She replies with something that sounds boisterous, enthusiastic, and not at all like an order to go sleep.

“She says she wants you out front again, she wants to make it to the next town before we have to make camp for the night,” Tuuri translates. Lalli stares at her, processing this, then turns his betrayed look on Sigrun herself. When he doesn’t receive any kind of appropriate reaction, he turns to Mikkel, hoping that this will be the moment that he mutinies and takes command for himself. Unfortunately, Mikkel seems perfectly content to continue biding his time.

Finding himself bereft of support, Lalli hisses to make his displeasure clear, then goes to grab his coat. He’ll continue scouting, but only because the rest of them are dumb and slow, so they would probably just get themselves killed anyway. Maybe he will even explain this to Tuuri over dinner.

The hours pass uneventfully after that. They leave the town behind at some point, and traverse fields that once would have been cultivated for growing food. Lalli stays alert, but with the more open terrain comes a lack of trolls. At one point he even spies a few uninfected rabbits, and he makes quick work of catching a couple. Lalli sends up a quick prayer of thanks that tonight’s dinner will include actual meat. 

When Lalli presents the rabbits to Mikkel, he gets a gentle pat on the head and a cookie. He tolerates this treatment slightly more graciously than Sigrun’s manhandling, though he does make sure to turn up his nose so that no one makes the mistake of thinking he likes all this touching. If they want to show him affection, they should stick to just giving him cookies, and letting him sleep.

Unfortunately, they don’t let him sleep yet. They are coming close to the next town, and Sigrun makes it clear that she wants Lalli to do a first pass and scout a place for them to bunk down for the night. He grumbles a bit, but it is a necessary task, so he goes. He is grateful that there is still about an hour before the sun will go down, so at least he won’t be doing this in the dark.


End file.
